Actions speak louder than words. While Schiavo told the media that he deeply loved and cared for Terri, his actions towards her revealed an entirely different nature. Schiavo was verbally and physically abusive towards Terri during his marriage to her. Two weeks before her collapse in 1990, Terri told her brother that she did not want to be married to Michael any longer due to his abusive behavior. Terri’s best friend, Jackie Rhodes, stated in court that she often saw Terri with bruises at work, and that Terri suffered from Michael’s mental abuse.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and the courts were repeatedly informed about Schiavo’s abusive behavior. However, the courts ignored the facts and the police agencies refused to investigate the complaints. The media presented Schiavo to the public as a deeply devoted husband, ignoring the fact that he was openly living with another woman while living on Terri’s trust fund.

Does this sound like a loving husband who cared about his wife’s wishes?

• He directed Terri’s doctor to put a Do Not Resuscitate order in her medical file in 1993, three months after he won a medical malpractice lawsuit for over $1 million dollars, and three years after Terri collapsed under mysterious circumstances. Schiavo had recently started dating Jodi Centonze, the women he eventually married in 2006.

• Michael knew CPR the night Terri collapsed, but didn’t administer CPR on her. He changed his story repeatedly when he gave his account of what happen when she collapsed. Michael hired an attorney, Daniel Greco, within 48 hours of Terri’s incident.

• Michael withheld medical treatment when Terri suffered from several life threatening infections. He admitted in court that he deliberately refused medical treatment because he was planning on having Terri’s feeding tube removed.

• Michael had affairs with other women (Cindy Shook, Trudy Capone, Jodi Centonze, and others) during his marriage to Terri, while telling the media that he deeply loved and cared for his wife.

• Schiavo euthanized Terri’s cats shortly after her collapse in 1990, even though her family wanted to take care of them.

• He admitted in court that he melted Terri’s wedding ring to make a piece of jewelry for himself.

• Schiavo denied requests from Terri’s blood family to take her outdoors for fresh air and sunshine while she lived at Woodside Hospice. When Terri died in her hospice bed, she had not been outside in over five years except during the times she was transported to Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater for several medical emergencies.

• He prohibited flowers and greeting cards to be in her room at Woodside Hospice.

• He prevented Terri from interacting with other patients.

• Terri’s parents, brother, and sister were banned from visiting her for over 50 days based on false accusations from Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos, that Terri’s parents were trying to harm her. After an exhaustive investigation, the Clearwater Police Department reported that Terri’s parents did not try to harm her.

• Judge Greer gave Michael Schiavo copyright protection on any future pictures or videos taken of Terri.

• When Terri’s feeding tube was removed for the second time in October 2003 at Woodside Hospice, Deborah Bushnell, Michael’s guardianship attorney, sat in a chair watching Terri. Michael’s friends, including his future mother-in-law, Eleanor Centonzi, and her daughter, Jodi Centonze, were also present in the room to ensure that Terri would not receive water. Deborah Bushnell and the Woodside Hospice nurses clothed Terri with heavy corduroy and blankets to make her sweat more, thus dehydrate her quicker.

• He accused Terri’s mother, Mary Schindler, of stealing Terri’s stuffed animals. His attorney, Deborah Bushnell, wrote the Schindler’s attorney a letter accusing her of stealing Terri’s animals and demanded that they be returned.

• He banned the hospice Christmas carolers from entering Terri’s room to sing to her in December 2004. She was left alone in her room while other Woodside Hospice patients were visited by the singers.

• He ordered the nurses at Woodside Hospice to keep the blinds in Terri’s room permanently closed to prevent sunlight from entering the room.

• Michael threatened to sue any doctor that would re-insert Terri’s feeding tube after Governor Jeb Bush signed a law that allowed Terri to receive fluids. In 2005, Michael initiated a lawsuit against Morton Plant Hospital, but the case was eventually dropped.

• Starving a disabled person to death is lawful in Florida; however, starving an animal is punishable by law.

• Michael ordered Woodside Hospice officials to have three armed policeman surround Terri’s bed while her family prayed and said their final goodbyes to her. They were ordered to leave her room after ten minutes of being with her.

• Moments before Terri’s death, Michael ordered Terri’s sister, brother, and Father Frank Pavone to leave the room. Terri’s family wanted Fr. Pavone to give Terri her last rites, but Schiavo demanded that Fr. Pavone leave Terri’s room moments before her death.

• He ordered Terri’s body to be cremated immediately upon her death. Her parents wanted to provide her with a Catholic burial in a cemetary. However, Schiavo ignored their requests, and insisted that Terri be cremated immediately upon her death. Schiavo’s attorney, Deborah A. Bushnell, kept the urn for Terri’s ashes underneath her desk waiting for Terri to be cremated.

• As a final insult to Terri’s memory, Schiavo inscribed on her gravesite that she departed this earth the night of her collapse – February 25, 1990 – and indicated he “kept his promise.”

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